Here is a good torch.
http://www.bernzomatic.com/PRODUCTS/TORCHES/PROFESSIONALTORCHES/tabid/230/ctl/Detail/mid/1009/xmid/6940/xmfid/3/Default.aspxI find the Mapp torches to be too little for brazing. Real small stuff, yeah, but not Buttplate, etc. You need BTUs. I also use a 2 X 6 for backflame. You can braze without a backflame, but you will struggle.
I snip the rod stock into small pieces. These I use a pencil to transfer to the work. The wood burns away, the graphite transfers the piece and the carbon soaks the O2. It is simpler to learn with snippets, than with rod stock.
I started on copper stock to practice. Small pieces of copper pipe, flat stock, etc. I started by melting the copper. Melting my first piece was exciting to me! I loved it. However, if you can melt it, you can control the melt. You do not want to melt the piece during brazing.
You are exciting the molecules during the heating. The metal opens up into capillary openings. The braze stock flows into these microscopic openings. As the piece cools, the capillary openings shrink back into the original shape, the braze rod is trapped in the piece. With two pieces, both open capillary openings, and the rod stock flows between both pieces. As the piece cools, both pieces shrink back to size, trapping the melt in both of them. This is a very strong joint. It can be shaped, is resistant to movement. Brazing is not fusing. Fusing, both parts flow together.
You need flux.
20 Mule Team Borax is great flux. So is Cockroach killer. That is Boric Acid. Mix them both together with alcohol. This makes a paste that gets wiped on the joint prior to heating. Light the joint. It will burn green then go out. Then heat the joint. The flux will turn white, grow, then liquify. At this point, add a snippet. When it flows, keep the heat on and add another snippet. Now you are making a joint. When you remove the heat, the rod stock, or snippet, will harden. Now pickle it.
It is actually fun. I love watching the metal flow.
Melt copper. Brass stock will fume. Save that material for when you are more accomplished with simple brazing. Keep the complexities out of the mix.
Braze copper, control the braze. See how much you need for how long a joint.
You will melt lots at first. Save the good stuff for when you are comfortable with this. Melt scraps. Braze scraps, play around with them.
You can also use the Borax to put out the charcoal under the piece. It will smoke and you will get burning. Not as much as you might think, but it will happen.
That is how I learned. I taught myself. I probably made more messes than successes back then. It was frustrating!
No one helped, or even knew what I was talking about. Read up on it, look on U-Tube for videos. People here will pipe in. These guys know their stuff! That is for sure. I have a lot of respect for their work.
Batterns makes good self picling flux.
Once you start heating, keep the heat on untill you have flowed the snippet. Either pickle, or use more Batterns.
Flux or it will not flow. No excepetions here. No flux, no flow.
So, burn pieces, melt them, heat them, watch the Braze rod flow.
It really is simple, even though it does not seem so. Most of all, heat hurts! Heat starts fires!
Have something on hand to pick up the piece when it is hot. It always happens. You heat a piece and you need to move it.
Please be careful, especially learning. Hoses melt, if you keep the tank attached to the torch when not in use, it will be empty when you need it. Remove the regulator from the tank. If you can watch someone, you will have a fast start on brazing. Make sure you can put out any fire that starts where you do not want it. Oh, and it will burn skin! No bare feet! I do not use gloves, but I use long handle tools. When I cast, I have a table top that is 2500* tile, with the vaccum caster on fire brick.
Good luck.
Take it slow, make it safe! You will braze another day.
